The Federal Government has launched a N100bn solar electrification programme to power public sector infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, and government buildings, with clean energy.

The initiative, known as the National Public Sector Solarization Initiative, was officially launched during a joint agreement signing ceremony in Abuja between the Rural Electrification Agency, the Budget Office of the Federation, the Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria, and the Ministry of Finance Incorporated.

The agreement was announced in a statement by the REA on Friday in Abuja. The NPSSI, fully funded by the Federal Government in its first phase, seeks to replace diesel-powered generators across Nigeria’s public institutions with distributed solar energy systems, part of a broader strategy to cut carbon emissions and reduce the cost of powering public infrastructure.

he Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Nomalungelo Gina, has encouraged African universities to embrace the global digital revolution by becoming creators of artificial intelligence (AI) and innovation, rather than mere consumers. She cautioned that the erosion of local culture is a significant threat if indigenous knowledge is not integrated into new technologies.

During the opening of the University of Zululand’s (Unizulu) 4th International Education Week at the KwaDlangezwa Campus this week, which was held under the theme ’Building an African University through Collaborations and Partnerships,’ Gina emphasised that internationalisation should not compromise African identity.

This as Unizulu’s Internationalisation Office, in collaboration with the BRICS Student Commission, is hosting the 4th International Education Week. According to the university, International Education Week 2025 is more than a week of dialogue; it is a bold step toward building globally connected African universities grounded in indigenous knowledge, identity, and innovation.

China and Africa are deepening collaborations between their universities and they have resolved to increase the number of institutions of higher learning involved in partnerships between the two regions across various fields of study.

Professor Peng Yi, a higher education expert who was appointed by the China Association for Higher Education, or CAHE, and the Association of African Universities (AAU), said the “friendship and trust between China and Africa” was making higher education collaboration easier.

The collaboration, which is being undertaken under the China-Africa Consortium of Universities Exchange Mechanism, was launched in July 2023 during the biennial Conference of Rectors, Vice-Chancellors and Presidents of African Universities (COREVIP) in Windhoek, Namibia.

African countries are unlikely to attain five of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by the 2030 target date: good health and well-being (SDG 3); gender equality (SDG 5); decent work and economic growth (SDG 8); life below water (SDG 14) and strengthening global partnerships (SDG 17).

This necessitates accelerating efforts to achieve the SDGs and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 through adopting a holistic approach, which includes investing in higher education and scientific research.

This is according to the 2025 Africa Sustainable Development Report that was officially launched at a ministerial meeting on Africa Day, held at the end of July on the side of the High-Level Political Forum 2025, organised at the UN headquarters in New York, United States.

Universities are in panic mode. As artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT and Claude become increasingly sophisticated, administrators are scrambling to install detection software, rewrite plagiarism declarations, and develop policies to catch students using AI to complete assignments.

This frantic focus on policing AI use reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of both the technology’s impact and the purpose of higher education. The irony is that universities are right to be worried about AI, but not for the reasons they think.

AI represents a paradigm shift comparable to the printing press or the internet, but compressed into a timeframe that allows little institutional adaptation. These tools generate human-like text, solve complex problems, and perform cognitive tasks that were once exclusively human domains.

Africa’s limited control over its own research priorities, publishing platforms, and funding streams has left the continent vulnerable to external influence and intellectual exploitation. To address this imbalance, African universities must step into a leadership role – setting their own research agendas, challenging harmful narratives imposed from outside, and affirming the value of indigenous knowledge systems.

This is one of the key insights from the 16th Quadrennial General Conference of the Association of African Universities (AAU) that was held from 21-25 July in Rabat, Morocco. The event brought together vice-chancellors, university presidents, researchers, policymakers, and other development partners from across the continent.

There was broad consensus at the conference that African institutions’ scientific relationships beyond the continent should not be centred on funding, and that cooperative construction, validation, and the impact of African knowledge systems should be emphasised.

The Ghana Technical and Vocational Education and Training Service (TVETS) and Trans-Sahara Industries Ltd (TSI) have signed a strategic partnership memorandum to reshape Ghana’s technical education and sustainable transport landscape.

The agreement aims to bridge national skills development and cutting-edge green manufacturing to fuel Ghana’s industrialisation and climate goals. The two institutions would also collaborate to enhance industry relevance in TVET, modernise training infrastructure and create job opportunities for TVET graduates.

The Director-General of Ghana TVETS, Dr Eric Kofi Adzroe and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of TSI, Gerald Acheampong, appended their signatures to the agreement. The TSI is a wholly Ghanaian-owned company that currently assembles bicycles, e-bikes, electric motorcycles and electric rickshaws in Ghana.

In the past three decades, the secondary education system has implemented a curriculum that is elitist (or bookish) and narrowly focused on the subject content with little emphasis on the cross-cutting essential learnings that can develop the combination of basic knowledge, skills and core competencies needed to promote sustainable development.

In the inclusive free SHS system, students of all abilities, including those with special needs and those from diverse backgrounds, including poor parents who cannot afford it, those living in disaster areas, and those living in remote or hard-to-reach areas, attend the same type of schooling.

They are provided with equitable opportunities to obtain qualifications and training. The inclusive free SHS system is a way of transforming the education system to respond to the diversity of learners through the adoption of an inclusive education curriculum.

The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has announced that, effective next academic year, the ministry will be reintroducing Art, Craft and Needlework into the educational curriculum for foundational learners across the country.

He indicated that the decision was part of a new policy initiative of the government’s broader curriculum reforms. The minister made this known during an engagement with Home Economics teachers drawn from senior high schools (SHS) in the Eastern Region at Oyoko Methodist SHS in the New Juaben North Municipality last Tuesday.

Mr Iddrisu explained that the new policy decision aimed at improving foundational learning and, at the same time, enhancing the skill development of young students. The initiative, the Minister said was part of the ongoing curriculum reforms aimed at enhancing creative skills and improving foundational education among children in basic schools.

The 2023 presidential candidate and Labour Party leader, Mr Peter Obi, has expressed deep concern over the worsening state of Nigeria’s education sector, calling it a national emergency that demands urgent intervention.

Reacting to alarming data released by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) on his verified X account on Thursday, August 7, 2025, Obi said Nigeria is “failing its children” by prioritising infrastructure projects over critical investments in human capital.

“With over 20 million children out of school, and the majority of those enrolled unable to read or write, we are facing a crisis of great magnitude. “Even more disturbing is the fact that those in school are not learning,” Obi decried.

Nubian American Advanced College (NAAC), Lekki, Lagos, in collaboration with Johnson C Smith University (JCSU), USA, has strengthened academic ties between Nigeria and the United States through strategic partnerships during the recent International Edufair for Nigerian students held recently in Lagos.

In her address, Dr. Vallerie Kinloch, President of JCSU, underscored the importance of fostering meaningful international academic partnerships. Her presence at the Edufair was not just symbolic but strategic, marking a new chapter in transcontinental academic engagement and offering a window of opportunity for Nigerian students to connect with one of America’s foremost institutions.

Jerome Griffin, President of NAAC, explained that the collaboration is also geared toward meeting the needs of Gen Z students, those born between 1990 and 2010. This is the first generation that grew up in a fully digital society, he said. Its only logical that our academic programmes reflect that reality.

President Bola Tinubu has approved a grant of ₦4.25 billion for the funding of 158 research proposals under the 2024 National Research Fund (NRF) cycle managed by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund). The approval follows a screening process conducted by the NRF Screening and Monitoring Committee, which assessed 6,944 concept notes submitted by researchers across the country.

According to a statement released by Abdulmumin Oniyangi, Director of Public Affairs at TETFund, the process led to the selection of projects across three thematic groups: Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation (SETI); Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS); and Cross Cutting (CC). Of the total sum, SETI received ₦2.35 billion, HSS was allocated ₦1.03 billion, and Cross Cutting themes received ₦870.7 million.

Institutions with the highest number of approved projects include the Federal University of Technology, Minna, which secured 15 grants worth ₦400 million; Ahmadu Bello University with 13 projects totaling ₦359.8 million; and Federal University of Technology, Akure, which got 12 projects at ₦341.6 million.